Saturday, August 29, 2015

Thing have been busy. We have to get the crib ready for the new baby so I built my son his first big kid bed.

He seems to like it a lot. Just screwed and glued 2x10 lengths of Douglas fir together with deck screws. The headboard is joined with dowels.

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It is sturdy, high enough to change the sheets without wrenching your back, and he seems to have no problems sleeping in it. I finished it with a mixture of Minwax early American. and dark walnut. I used three light coats of clear spray liquor and buffed it out with clear wax.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

I met Rick on the Central Coast Kayak Fishing Forum over a year and a half ago. We just never got a chance to fish together though. The funny thing is he works on the same base I do practically the next building over. Things just didn't pan out until about the second week of June when I Facebooked him to see if he wanted to hit the aqueduct with me. Things were fairly uneventful. The area near the locks was loaded with people fishing for cats and stripers, but we didn't see any boils.

After about half an hour of fan casting we decided to move. One of the strategies on the duct is to look for boils of fish attacking bait and casting into it. I like it because it is active fishing and you get to cover a lot of water. When we saw activity on the surface we started casting. Finally near a bridge I hooked into a small one. I didn't want to let it flop on the concrete so I stepped closer to grab him and my foot slipped on some algae. The water level dropped leaving the concrete bank lined with slick green goo.

I slowly slid into the water. I couldn't believe how long it took. I was up to my knees, waist, and finally when I was chest deep in the water I became neutrally buoyant. I wasn't going any further, but I couldn't get up the bank either. Rick kept telling me to climb out but I was stuck. I eventually managed to grab his arm and he pulled me back on the bank. I was just glad I didn't lose the rod. It was the custom rod my wife had made for me. Losing that would have sucked. I reeled in a little and to my surprise the fish was still on. I may have been soaked, but I still got the fish.

Right after that we got a visit from the game warden, and it was funny seeing his face when I pulled out my dripping wet wallet. I got wet and killed my cell phone, but I got a laugh and a story out of it. As far as I see it, I couldn't ask for more it could be worse.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

I reached one of my goals this year by earning my bachelors in psychology from Columbia College of Missouri. I could not have done it without the Post 9/11 GI Bill. (If you served your country do yourself a favor and use your GI Bill.) I feel extremely lucky to have a bachelors and not have a student loan payment.

It has not been easy attending school with everything else going on but I managed to graduate with Latin honors and qualify to join SALUTE a national honors society for veterans.

On the left is Joe my academic adviser, and to the right is Betsy the director of the Lemoore Campus.

I even managed to make Deans list the last semester. I don't know what is next because I have a few options I can choose with little control over what happens, so all I can do is keep moving forward.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

(Back to catching up on fishing reports and such. This is from Memorial Day weekend.)

I don't consider myself a good fishermen. I have yet to catch a rainbow trout in the state of California despite the fact that there doesn't seem to be a 10 year old in the state without a photo of them holding a full stringer and I have not caught a striped bass. So when my buddy Derick invited me out to fish the duct I was not aiming for a 40 incher. I just wanted a bite.

I must have made a hundred casts before getting a bump. When it happened I didn't even know what do do. It took another hour or so. Derick and his friend already had half a dozen between them before I caught mine.

I finally got a bite, but I couldn't set the hook. I finally rigged the fluke sideways and on the next cast hooked into one.

Not the biggest fish, or even average sized, but it was a striper. I beat the skunk and caught my first striped bass.

We fished until it got dark and my friends caught a few more small ones. I was just happy to be fishing and to not be skunked.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

I owned a 2004 Fuji Outland disc. It is a 27 speed 26 inch mountain bike that I bought new up in Whidbey Island, Washington. I left my bike on the back of my truck last night. It was locked and parked against my garage in my driveway. When my wife left to go to work she came back in and asked if I had my bike on my truck. The scumbags used tools to disassemble my bike rack and steal the bike I paid for with my bonus for signing up for the Navy.

I am going to miss that bike. It has helped me get back into shape and given me a lot of joy over the years. I don't know how I am going to be able to replace it. A part of me was stolen.

Monday, July 20, 2015

So my amazing wife figured out the perfect gift for my birthday last November. She got a hold of my buddy Ed Schmitt, who builds some sick custom rods, to make me something special. The Diawa Lexa spinning reel paired with it is sooth and has a nice smooth drag. The reel is spooled up with Nanofil and the thing casts a mile.

The rod features a Batson Rainshadow Immortal IMMS610MXF 6'10" blank, Fuji K series Alconite micro guides, and a Fuji SK2 reel seat. Ed also lathed some beautiful custom grips using cork with cherry and burl wood as accents.

Photo by Ed Schmitt

Ed really went above and beyond to make this thing beautiful. It is a real work of art.

Photo by Ed Schmitt

You would think the hardwood would be hard on the hands, but the rod is light, plus the wood accents are not is places the hand comes in contact with often.

The tiger wrap is stunning and photos and video do not truly do it justice.

I could sit and stare at it for hours.

To protect this beautiful build I ordered a Rod Condom sleeve and am very happy with it. The price was awesome, shipping was under a buck and it arrived quickly. Not to mention it is a veteran owned American company. You should check them out.

I took it out to the upper Kings River back in late November. I tried throwing spinners and a bubble fly but nothing was biting.

At least it is a pretty place to get skunked.

Unless you count this giant crayfish my buddy spotted and I pulled out of the water.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

It has been hard to write. I love writing and I love the outdoors and I haven't had as much of either over the past few months. The biggest problem for me is my brain crack addiction. If you don't understand what brain crack is watch this video.

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I am an addict. I come up with ideas about what to write and then just don't do it so I become over whelmed with all these ideas for what I want to write. I have folders with pictures to upload and post. Story ideas and other projects. It piles up and when I do sit down to write the wife needs something or my son gets all clingy and wants to stick to me like Velcro.

I don't feel a need to share every thought I have, and like minded people reading and liking what I wrote is strictly a bonus. This is no apology for not writing, but a a challenge to myself to keep writing. Being strapped for cash, in the middle of a drought that has severely hindered the amount of time I can get on the water, and personal obligations I am overwhelmed, but the best way to get over this is to face it straight on and keep doing what I love.

I plan on making a bunch of posts to get rid of my brain crack over the next month when I get the time so they might be right on top of each other.

I hope you enjoy them and if you don't they are for me anyway so just go somewhere else

Saturday, May 9, 2015

For the past month and a half or so I have been biking into work. I live too far to bike directly into my office, and it would be impractical to ride my son on my bike the 26 miles to his daycare on base, so I am dropping him off and riding in from the main base at NAS Lemoore to Operation side.

The trail I ride is five miles as the crow flies an a rocky dry dirt roads for the most part. I tend to make the eight and a half mile trip between thirty and forty minutes. I try to get three days a week. Doing more is a little much for me. It is nice doing something active twice a day.

I manage to put around 50 miles per week in on my Fuji Outland Disc. I was having problems with tires popping, but slime tires and plastic tube protectors have really been working well for me. I need to replace the things that strap my bike down to the Thule bike rack. They keep falling off on the highway.

Only a week left of school and I will have my bachelors. The temp is starting to raise and I am busy, but at least the pool is looking good.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

A few weeks ago I had a visitor in the house. A Spinx moth flew in the house and really startled us. The funny thing was it kept dive bombing me hitting me in the head and the face like he was drunk and wanted to fight. Then as fast as he came he was gone. The next morning I heard a buzzing and the moth was attempting to go out a closed window so I snapped a picture.

The other day on my way out the door I noticed another moth near my front door light so I snapped a picture. I have been seeing a lot of them recently. I think the climbing jasmine I planted in the front yard. They are such cool bugs.

On a less buggy note, I got a trim and shaved my beard. I spent the past six months growing my beard out for Whiskers for Wounded Warriors a non-profit bringing awareness and support to our wounded warriors. Check them out on Facebook.

The beard was a little much, so after much protect from my wife I trimmed it down.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

I haven't been fishing since 2014 and have had so much going on it has not been a priority to write. Money is tight so I haven't ever bought a fishing licence this year. Plus if I were to drive an hour fifteen minutes to the nearest lake I'd miss out on half a day to a full day with my son. I have had a lot of papers and other school work to keep me busy, not to mention the other stuff going on. I have three weeks left in my bachelors program and summer is on its way in. I am going to try to get back into writing because it just feels right to me. It has become a part of who I am and I realized that not writing was denying myself something I enjoy. I even stopped reading other blogs. It was becoming overwhelming watching the days click past, but the break has just proven I need to keep writing.

I am very proud of this climbing jasmine I planted next to the garage.